As the U.S. healthcare system struggles to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been fighting another major battle – ransomware. Nearly half (48%) of hospitals, according to a new study, have had to disconnect their networks in the past six months because of ransomware.
Midsize hospitals are especially at risk, according to the study, Perspectives in Healthcare Security, conducted by Ipsos for CyberMDX and Philips. It found that while large hospitals reported an average shutdown of 6.2 hours at a cost of $21,500 per hour, midsize hospitals averaged nearly 10 hours at a cost of $45,700 per hour.
The study, which polled 130 IT and cybersecurity hospital executives, found that despite being in the crosshairs of ransomware attackers, hospitals are not prioritizing cybersecurity as much as they should. “More than 60% of hospital IT teams have ‘other’ spending priorities and less than 11% say cybersecurity is a high priority spend,” the study found.
Furthermore, inadequate protection against vulnerabilities such as WannaCry, NotPetya and BlueKeep is all too common. More than half of respondents (52%) said their hospitals have no protection against the Bluekeep vulnerability, and the number was higher for WannaCry (64%) and NotPetya (75%).
“With new threat vectors emerging every day, healthcare organizations are facing an unprecedented level of challenges to their security,” said CyberMDX CEO Azi Cohen. “Hospitals have a lot at stake — from revenue loss to reputational damage, and most important ..
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